The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Last night Stephen Colbert gleefully kicked off his week-long celebration of The Hobbit by interviewing Gandalf himself. Watch Sir Ian McKellen get trounced in a vicious game Tolkien trivia, and later admit that “Gandalf is more powerful than Magneto,” in this clip.

2.. Rookie, a new ABC drama that centers around a young woman who is trying to reinvent herself by becoming a cop, didn’t sound terribly interesting until we learned that Community’s Will Gluck and Andy Bobrow were both behind the project. [via THR]

3. Thanks to a chance run-in at a steakhouse in Indianapolis, Newt Gingrich will be the latest political bigwig to cameo in an upcoming episode of Parks and Recreation. [via Vulture]

4. Wish Book Volume 1, a mashup mixtape from Dan Deacon that samples everyone from Rod Stewart to Grimes, is streaming here. (We’re particularly fond of the final track, which magically blends Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” with Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” )

5. Speaking of incredible mashups, here’s a video that features all 182 movies released in 2012 mashed together in 6 minutes and 45 seconds.